OT questions

[JuicePack]

Hi! I have a few questions about occupational therapy and am wondering if you guys could help me out a bit. I'm Canadian if it makes any difference.

1. Are there enough OT jobs to get to kind of choose what you do? This may make me sound like a horrible person, but working with severely mentally handicapped people ONLY for the rest of my life isn't something I'd like. I'm just being honest, don't shoot me. It's not that I'm a bad person, I just don't know if I would be able to handle it all the time.

2. What are the different "types" of OT, and what do they involve? Is there a website that lists some of these? I've heard about working with depressed people, or people with eating disorders, etc. What do these occupational therapists do? How common is it for an occupational therapist to get a job like this? What is the most common type of job within OT?

3. I've heard some people complain that OT is too "fluffy", meaning that almost anyone could do their job (the words of an occupational therapist, not me).

4. There seems to be a lot of variation in OT. Is this true? If I discovered that I didn't like a certain area of OT, would I be likely to find an area I enjoy? Does a degree in OT qualify you to work as anything other than an occupational therapist? I have commitment issues, lol.

Thanks!

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[OTStudentSUNY]

1.1) The field of OT looks quite promising right now. According to the Department of Labor employment is expected to grow much faster than average and job opportunities should be good, especially for therapists treating the elderly. If you look at ads looking for therapists the sign-on bonuses are pretty impressive and salary too. There is plenty of choice in the field, probably even more so than in the PT or SLP fields. The range of opportunity varies from some OTs doing hand therapy with adults to others doing cognitive therapy with developmentally delayed children.​

1.2) Stating your preference, in my opinion, does not make you a bad person etc. To the contrary, every student has to make an educated and intelligent decision both before choosing a career path and before deciding his/her area of practice. As mentioned, OT offers you a very colorful and vast array of practice areas.​

2.1) OTs work in many settings. Wikipedia names a few:​

Physical​

* Orthopedics (outpatient clinics)​

* Pediatrics​

* Long-Term Care​

* Hand therapy​

* Cardiac rehabilitation​

* Burn Centers​

* Rehabilitation centers (TBI, Stroke (CVA), spinal cord injuries, etc.)​

* Hospitals (ranging from inpatient, subacute rehab, to outpatient clinics)​

* Forensic units​

* Homeless Shelters​

* Refugee Camps​

* Community Settings​

* Industrial therapy (work hardening, work conditioning, job demand analysis)​

Community​

Community based practice means moving away from hospitals and rehabilitation clinics and working with atypical populations such as the homeless or at risk populations.​

Examples of community-based practice settings:​

* Health promotion and lifestyle change​

* Intermediate care​

* Day centers​

* Schools​

* Child development centers​

* People's own homes, carrying out therapy and providing equipment and adaptations​

* Implementing gradual return to work programmes which include workplace and work station assessments​

Cognitive​

* Stroke rehabilitation​

* Traumatic brain injury​

* Multiple sclerosis​

* Parkinsons disease​

Mental Health​

* Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)​

* Forensic psychiatry​

* Prisons/sections​

* Mental health clinics​

* Psychiatric rehabilitation programs​

* CSP's​

* Club houses​

* Early Intervention for Psychosis services​

2.2) Yes there are OTs working in mental health. I doubt you will be forced to work in any setting against your will. You will have to complete fieldworks in various settings, some which you may or may not find appealing, but you ultimately choose where and with which population you work.​

2.3) According to a survey done by AOTA in 2000, the most popular setting for OTs to work in is schools.​

3.1) Fluff is a word very often associated with OT. Perhaps OTs do things that anybody can do; it really isn't rocket science. However, talk to people that have survived a stroke or to parents of developmentally delayed children who have been served by OTs and listen to the stories of how the OT, "doing what anybody else can do" helped them get their lives back on track. Fluff is very often associated with fields that have a humane component to them such as the humanities i.e. psychology etc. Not everything OTs do is hard science. There is much instinct, psychology, and emotion involved in treatment.​

4.1) See above​

4.2) See above​

4.3) Many people with OT degrees work in jobs where a MOT is a plus, such as are listed above under community-based practice settings.​

As a last word, if you have commitment issues and are unsure about the field of OT maybe it would be a good idea of observing an OT for some time or even volunteering in such a setting to see what it's all about. Too many people go into fields they don’t know enough about only to regret it 5ok in debt and thousands of academic hours later.​

All the best​

 

[jshi]

Hi!

I am so excited to have someone interested in occupational therapy! I am an OT practicing in Canada. I think this profession is really a diamond in the rough. It is true that the profession is very diverse. Therefore, the role changes within different setting. Just for an idea, I will tell you a little bit about my personal experience to add on to the great info posted above.

There is a shortage of OTs in Canada. I was offered my job before I graduated from OT school. The salary is the same as that of a PT where I am living. As a student I got to explore 5 different practice areas to get a sense of what is best suited for me: community home care, long term care center, children's hospital, rehabilitation center and acute care psychiatry.

Community Home Care: Visiting people’s homes – from kids to seniors – to ensure they are able to maintain their independence as much as possible. Ex. ordering bathroom safety equipment, ordering wheelchairs, making home adaptation recommendations such as ramps, lifts etc. Also assessing a person’s mobility and cognition… and lots of education on fall prevention and safety.

Long term care: The OT's role was very diverse and also specialized. These included assessing people for complex seating systems, assessing feeding and swallowing and recommending appropriate diet consistencies, assessing people for compression therapy to treat edema, assessing cognition, running upper extremity exercise groups and working very closely with therapy assistance.

School Health - Children: I travelled to different elementary schools in the city. The role included assessing children with mild to severe disabilities which prevented them from learning. There were lots of assessments of motor skills and perceptual skills through play. Then we set up a program to help these kids succeed in school which was carried out by the therapy assistant. We went to the classroom to run handwriting groups, met with teachers and parents, and wrote long indepth OT reports.

RehabilitationCenter: I was involved on the neurology team. This is very specialized group of OTs who helped people return to independence post stroke or brain injury. There were in depth cognitive assessment, perceptual assessments, and daily one on one therapy sessions working on a person’s balance right to ability to cook!

Psychiatry: I helped run activities groups where people made crafts. These activities served as both a way to assess a person’s mental health as well as a treatment. We also interviewed, counselled, and ran psychodynamic groups with the psychologist.

Currently I working at a rehab center and doing some casual weekend jobs as well at a hospital (orthopaedic and trauma unit). I work with people from 18-101! I get to work with people of all different disabilities and illness from all sort of cultural and social backgrounds. People with cancer, people with broken bones, people who have been in car accidents, people who have debilitating long term disabilities, people who's aliments are a mystery to the medical world! You’ll see people who are retired, people who are students, people who are doctors and engineers, people who are homeless… you name it!

So really you can choose what group of people you would enjoy working with. If you don’t like it, just move on because there are definitely lots of opportunities to work within different setting.

I do agree the best would be to shadow some OTs from different setting to see if OT is suited for you!

Best of luck!

 

[mariolatry]

1. Are there enough OT jobs to get to kind of choose what you do?

2. What are the different "types" of OT, and what do they involve? Is there a website that lists some of these? What is the most common type of job within OT?

3. I've heard some people complain that OT is too "fluffy", meaning that almost anyone could do their job (the words of an occupational therapist, not me).

4. There seems to be a lot of variation in OT. Is this true? If I discovered that I didn't like a certain area of OT, would I be likely to find an area I enjoy? Does a degree in OT qualify you to work as anything other than an occupational therapist? I have commitment issues, lol.

Thanks!

1. There will always be jobs in OT, especially as the population grows older. If you're willing to work with the elderly or work in a big system, you will always have a job. If you want to work in some of the more specialized areas of OT, get your Level II fieldworks in those areas and invest is some quality continuing education. Then, keep your eyes open and sell yourself big time on your resume. Of all the OTs I went to school with and still keep in touch with, I know:
-someone working in the school system with autistic pre-schoolers
-someone who is the education coordinator for therapists in a big hospital system. She identifies what further education/training the staff needs and arranges for inservices and continuing educators to come in.
-someone doing full-time acute rehab with severely brain injured individuals (a lot of splinting, positioning, sensory stim)
-someone doing return to work with high, level executives (cognitive training)
-someone running groups for health care professionals with dual diagnoses (mental illness/drug alcohol addictions). She works on both psych and social skills trying to get doctors and nurses back to work.
I have done general rehab with mixed patients (ortho/medical/neuro), low tolerance rehab for severely compromised vent patients, inpatient psych in a county psych hospital, community re-entry with brain injury patients, and medical model pediatrics (sick kids).


2. You could try the AOTA website or Advance for OT website (a magazine for OTs)

3. Typically the OTs who feel their jobs are brainless are stuck in dead end areas of OT or who have become complacent in their work. If you've been working in a sub-acute ortho setting for years, it's easy to think hip fracture=raised toilet seat=self-care practice without really using your critical thinking skills. If you want to be continually challenged, work in a real rehab setting with brain injury or stroke patients or try community re-entry.

4. From OT, you could probably branch into psych, social services, education, or personal training/fitness with some additional training.

 

[caduceus27]

Hi
Everyone above could not have answered your questions better. I do have to add something about OT being "fluffy". Its true that OTs do things that anybody can do. Especially PTs and nurses where they are creeping into the realm of ADLs. I think we are trained to do things that other professions are not trained to do. There is a lot of overlap in terms if PT and OT but there are some things that OTs are trained to do while others are not. So its not that we are "fluffy" its just that we allow other professions to step on our turf, hence making it seem that anybody can do our job.

 

[NATO]

Hi
Everyone above could not have answered your questions better. I do have to add something about OT being "fluffy". Its true that OTs do things that anybody can do. Especially PTs and nurses where they are creeping into the realm of ADLs. I think we are trained to do things that other professions are not trained to do. There is a lot of overlap in terms if PT and OT but there are some things that OTs are trained to do while others are not. So its not that we are "fluffy" its just that we allow other professions to step on our turf, hence making it seem that anybody can do our job.

But isn't this a bad thing? If PTs and nurses are creeping on to OTs turf (so to speak), then whose to say that in the next 10 to 20 years, OT will be morphed with PT?

I was originally thinking about going to PA school, but a social acquantence of mine recently graudated from Duke University with her PA degree. She told me that being a PA isn't all that it's cracked up to be even though she does have "office hours" compared to a MD.

 

[superCOTA]

But isn't this a bad thing? If PTs and nurses are creeping on to OTs turf (so to speak), then whose to say that in the next 10 to 20 years, OT will be morphed with PT?

I was originally thinking about going to PA school, but a social acquantence of mine recently graudated from Duke University with her PA degree. She told me that being a PA isn't all that it's cracked up to be even though she does have "office hours" compared to a MD.

yes it's a very bad thing. but OT's dont stay very vocal in defending themselves once they get their degree, often dropping out of AOTA, our governing body. when AOTA doesn't get their dues, they cannot advocate on legislation, and as such PT's are trying to incorporate ADL's into their practice act in a few states, if they didnt make it in already.
So, this is bad.
This is why PT's have the PHD .. to seem like 'doctors' the way chiropractors did a decade ago. Any they take courses on management and whatever. It's still take a BS in PT w/ 20 years experience over a new DPT. There are some advantages to being a PT as far as medicaid is concerned also that marginalizes OT. Yes, it's a battle and if we don't start fighting soon, it will be over for us. Not today, not tomorrow... but one day. I wouln't fault you if you decided PT over OT but you have to do what you like.